In Other News: 08/02/2013

• A couple of weeks ago there was a big old hoohar about Microsoft's Surface Pro, which would supposedly be arriving with very little internal memory available because the OS was meant to be taking over a lot of the internal storage. Well it turns out it's not all as bas as everyone thought! The picture above pretty much clarifies the situation and assuming you save your recovery image on a flash drive then you'll actually have over 5GB of extra storage on your Surface Pro then you would on a 128GB MacBook Air!
  Via ZDNet.

• LG Hong Kong have posted an official confirmation that the 4X HD, as well as the Optimus L7 and L9's will all get Android 4.1 Jelly Bean in the first half of the year!
  Via UnwiredView.

• O2 UK has announced that they are currently rolling out the Andorid 4.1.2 Jelly Bean update to the Sony Xperia T!
  Via AndroidCentral.

• Blackberry have confirmed they will not be offering phones for sale in Japan any more. Apparently the company cannot justify the extra cost in translating their OS' to Japanese because there simply isn't enough demand in the country, with only 0.3% of phone users rocking their Blackberry's! Blackberry have said that they will support current users for the foreseeable future though!
  Via ZDNet.

• Three UK has announced that their new upcoming DC-HSDPA and LTE connections will be called "Ultrafast". Along with this there has been the announcement of the 'Ultrafast Galaxy S3', which is exactly the same as the HSPA+ version except it can take advantage of Three's new DC-HSDPA network!
  Via AndroidCentral.

• Nokia's much rumoured device with the huge camera module is being touted as the Nokia 1000 by some sites on the internet. This has become relevant because the device has supposedly popped up on a list of devices destined for China.
  Via UberGizmo.

• Forbes have said that the Evasi0n jailbreak is the most popular ever with nearly seven million downloads in total thus far!

• The BBC Trust has announced that they have approved a 12-month trial which will allow shows to be broadcast online before they are shown on TV! The trial will allow up to a maximum of 40 hours of shows available online before they are on TV!
  Via Telegraph.

• The Nexus 4 has supposedly shipped over a million units now! If you believe that the XDA estimates are accurate!
  Via TechCrunch.

And finally, Nokia have been award a patent for a phone which has a curved backplate and an overall rather pleasant design! Given that we are expecting Nokia to unleash at least one new Lumia device on the world at MWC wouldn't it be pretty sweet if they offered us something like this?
LiveSide Via TheVerge.

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21/12/2012: Gangnam Style reaches the 1billion milestone, Galaxy S3's randomly dying, iOS 6.0.2 issues and much more!

Gangnam becomes the first video ever to receive One Billion hits!

   Deep down, whether we wanted to or not, we all knew that this day was coming. We're not quite sure what it is about 'the Gangnam' which gives it so much style. It could be the incredibly catchy 'eyyy sexy ladies' line or perhaps it's the simplicity of the dance and the smiles it puts on faces everywhere. One thing we do know though is that Psy and his song are now written into internet history for ever. 

   Having a smash hit that peaked at Number 1 in the charts in at least 34 countries is nothing to be sniffed at, but one billion hits on YouTube is something no one else can claim to have achieved. We know this isn't necessarily accurate maths but in theory one in seven people on the earth have listened to Gangnam Style on YouTube and when you factor in radio play time and television plays, the reach of this one single song is quite staggering!

   We'll leave you with this thought, the video was posted in July and Google works it out that the video was watched somewhere between 7 and 10 million times every single day since. Perhaps we do have too much free time! But, we did re-watch the video while we were writing this... It's hard not to be tempted!
Via BBC.

Is iOS 6.0.2 killing your battery?

   Today Apple has rolled out the latest update to their iOS software, version 6.0.2. This is meant to bring with it a fix for "a bug that could impact Wi-Fi". That's great news if you happen to be having some problems at the moment, but some users have been reporting issues with that update. 

   Over at Apple's support forum have said that they have been suffering with battery drain since the update. One owner said, "It is absolutely draining my battery... I can usually get through a day with about 75 percent of my battery power remaining. Today I've gone through 90 percent and I've done nothing special with it". It's possible that this is only affecting a small number of users as everyone else seems to be OK. 

   If your phone does seem to be draining a little quickly, pop back to your local phone store or an Apple store and we're pretty sure the nice guys there will be more than happy to swap the phone out for you! We don't think this is any sort of major issue though so don't be too concerned about updating! If you would rather not take the risk just hold off, if this is a widespread issue Apple will offer another update in the next couple of weeks, so there's no harm in waiting this one out!

Via HotHardware.

Samsung Galaxy S3's silently dying and refusing to revive themselves?

Image credit: KipHakes.com

   You see that shiny Galaxy S3 on your desk? Well all may look well on the outside but on the inside it may be a different story. Some reports are coming in that Samsung's latest darling is simply giving up the ghost. Some people have reported that their handset died overnight while it was simply charging and others have said that the handset died during a reboot.

   Irrespective of how they're dying, it doesn't disguise the fact that they are. Regardless of how it happens though, the end result is a handset that turns off and doesn't turn back on. The reports are saying that this is happening to phones that are between 150 and 200 days old. There hasn't yet been a confirmed reason why this is happening from Samsung, but some have suggested that the NAND is becoming corrupted and failing.

All said and done, Samsung has yet to offer an official statement on the matter, however based on the reports coming from xda users, they are replacing the handsets with no questions asked. In fact, Samsung is even said to be replacing handsets that were rooted.

  If you've had this very problem then head to this website and find your nearest Samsung Care Point. If you're interested in reading the full debate then there's a 61 page thread on XDA at the moment for you to flick through!
Via AndroidCommunity.

In other news:

• Just like always at the time of year devices start popping up in benchmark tests. Today a new device with a dual-core 1.5Ghz Snapdragon S4 chipset has appeared on GLBenchmark. The device it's supposedly powering is the Acer V350. The benchmark didn't reveal too much aside from the processor and a display with the resolution of 1280 by 720 pixels, unfortunately we don't know how many inches this resolution will cover, although knowing Acer it won't be anything too much more than 4.5", they don't like to alienate people with large phones. Another positive to take from the benchmark is the presence of Android 4.1.2 on the V350, this will be a very good mid-range phone for next year!
  Via PhoneArena.

• Phones4U is reporting that there is an update rolling out to those of you out there lucky enough to own an Xperia T from Sony. The update is 'incremental' and will bring 'extended standby mode, screen mirroring allowing content sharing with enabled TVs, microphone sensitivity improvements [and] improved battery indicated accuracy.'
  
  This sounds like a good maintenance update from Sony so if you do have an Xperia T it will be well worth heading to Sony's website to install the update, although at the time of writing Sony hasn't got round to updating the download link, but that should happen sometime soon!
  Via Phones4u. 

• Sony's much leaked 'Yuga' smartphone which is rocking a 5" Full HD display, 12 MP Exmor RS sensor, 2 GB of RAM, a quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset with LTE radio, and a full suite of ports, including a microSD and microHDMI, may well be arriving with the title the 'Sony Xperia Z'. It's a rather cool name in our book. We just hope Sony can bring the device to market at a price which is somewhere near to that of Google's Nexus 4, although we think that's highly unlikely!
  Via XperiaBlog.

• Research released today by KantarWorldPanel indicates that Apple now has a 53.3% dominance of the smartphone sales in the United States of America! Yes more than 1 in every 2 people in the US walks out of their local carrier store with a shiny new iPhone! Apple’s gain in this report came at the expense of Android and Blackberry maker RIM. Android lost 10% of last years sales figures, while RIM dropped 6%!
  
  This does make you wonder whether or not Apple's bubble is going to burst soon, is it really possible for people to just want what everyone else has indefinitely or will they look for something unique and distinguishing soon? What do you think? Let us know in the comments below!
  Via Slashgear.

• AT&T has announced that LTE is now live in Lancaster, Pa., Ogden, Utah, Hartford, Conn., Bowling Green, Ky., Lexington, Ky. and Boise, Idaho! It's good to see America's second largest carrier is still committed to their LTE rollout plans!
  Via AndroidCentral.

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